Shattered Glass

[jaydisc]

This isn't really a review as much as a request for discussion. A bunch of us now have this and I'd love to know your thoughts.

Here's some of mine:

I started with Starscream. Along with Goldbug and Razorclaw, this figure was a new mold for me and I only intended on "inspecting" unique molds ;). I love Classics Jetfire and was a bit partial to the look of this figure. It's OK. More thoughts on him to come later after I take some pics.

I then opened Goldbug. Bear in mind that I am not familiar with this namesake in toy or fiction. The alt mode is cool. The transformation and robot are both a bit lame.

Jazz barely met the criteria for a unique mold as I recently acquired Jolt, but like Movie Evac, the remolded head was excuse enough to inspect. The head is well done, but I have general issues with this figure's proportions. Regardless, this figure makes a great Classics Jazz as he's painted in his original colors, unlike Starscream and Prime.

I had no intention of taking Prime out (non-unique mold), but Borgeman came over to have a look and I encouraged him to do so. He transformed him and passed him to me in robot mode, and I was pleasantly surprised. This figure looks great in robot mode. The paint job is stunning. It's so NOT Hasbro :D Which led me to think:

What is the relationship between Fun Publication and Hasbro in regards to design and manufacturing? Do Fun Publications design what they want with a Hasbro-supplied list of acceptable molds (e.g. no movie) and then who manufacturers it? Is it at the same factory as Has or Tak?

After doing Prime, Grimlock was now fair game and I had a go with him too. Both my Prime and Grimlock are strong QA passers. There is a bit of variance between my Prime and Magnus and my original Grimlock is a bit flaky. When Goro dropped off my JRX the other day, he referred to Grimlock in alt mode as Classics Trypticon. I had always intended on displaying Jazz with my Classics, but after realizing that, I will now also display Trypticon as well.

I still haven't removed Razorclaw :D

So what does everyone else think? While I don't have them, please comment about the attendee figures too!

[Borgeman]

jay, on prime, did you get grill/front wheels to bend all the way up in robot mode? did others find that part on prime quite hard to turn?

George

[iceburn]

would love to contribute more but at current, i've spotted paintjob problems on my Starscream....drat! will have to go spend more time to look at the others in the next few days

[edit] the colours of grimlock does look like Trypticon. Good call there goro and jay

[Paulbot]

I was impressed with Goldbug, but it doesn't really feel like an upgrade to Classic Bumblebee. I would have liked the Hotshot toy repainted as evil Bumblebee and the Cybertron Defense Hotshot repainted as evil Goldbug :)

All the new heads are very nicely done.

Starscream and Megatron both feel a little KO-y to me as I'm used to the larger sized versions of both toys.

Very happy that the Armada Wheeljack toy is finally called Sideswipe, and the G2 homage is nice.

The Mini-con Predacons help make up the numbers for the Heroic Decepticons, but don't feel all that different from the original Mini-con toys.

I really enjoyed the comic too which teased us with other characters from this universe, including the Red and White medic Constructicons and the LOL sight of a Diagnostic Drone with a nurses hat! :D

[roller]

I think Blurrs motto should have been "The smarter i am the more painful you die" that sounds smarter and eviler

I will get Blurr and Optimus some day they look the best to me

Sucks that another microcontinuity is made and just for a select number o fans

[jaydisc]

Ice, regarding Starcream, mine has a bit of black paint above his left eyebrow. I'm sure LCZ with a bit of thinner can remove it in seconds:

http://lindalane.com/temporary/tf/botconstarscream.jpg

Now, pardon the short digression, but I always loved the cartoon Skyfire and while I liked the toy Jetfire, I really wanted Skyfire. Classics Skyfire's head mold really delivered on that desire for me, but there was two major alt mode ommissions that made it incomplete.

For a great pic of Skyfire, see our old friend, Heroic Decepticon's blog header (http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com/). Great blog too by the way (Where are you Heroic?)

The first, most obvious difference is the twin jetpack of Jetfire vs. the single red bulk of Skyfire. I can live with this.

The second one, I feel is possibly easy to remedy and that is the fact that on Classics Jetfire the nosecone tapers down and has no intake as opposed to Skyfire's nose tapering up and having an intake.

So, back on topic...

When looking at the Botcon Starscream mold mid-transformation, that nosecone looks PERFECT for Skyfire:

[note my hosting provider is exhibiting a bit of trouble, so the loading of these images might be a bit flaky]

http://lindalane.com/temporary/tf/SkyfireStarscream.jpg

So, using this quick shot of Classics Jetfire:

http://lindalane.com/temporary/tf/SkyfireSkyfire.jpg

I did a quick Photoshop chop job to amalgamate the two:

http://lindalane.com/temporary/tf/SkyfireMix.jpg

Now that's a lot closer to what I'd like!!! I totally want to take the little clips on Classics Jetfire that form the nose con and alter them to taper up and have a hollow intake in the front. Granted, a few more modifications would improve it even further. Using the smaller-cockpit-more-white-Henkei-version would further assist with the accuracy.

[iceburn]

mine's unfinished/80% done paintjob on the left shoulders (i think)
theres a rather 0.5cm white unpainted spot in the middle of the red paint

[edit] also wondering where STL's loose set is now...
hmm, might see if his is better and do a swap *keke* (right Hoang??)

[jaydisc]

Post some pics when you can.

[iceburn]

Post some pics when you can.

will do..this week will be busy as i'm cleaning/clearing up the house to look abit neater....